The genre of rap has a bad rap– it is frequented with explicit language, incomprehensible, and it glorifies violence, misogyny, and drug usage. In fact according to Best Tickets Data Collective, the average rap album has 217.7 “cuss words” per album. Despite its negative connotations and usage of expletive words in its lyrics, rap is a favorite genre among teenagers because it addresses current issues impacting society and shares perspectives from different socioeconomic statuses and races. Rap raises awareness on social injustices which makes a difference in teenagers’ lives. There is a long history of rap songs protesting unjust violence by the police toward people of color. From songs like old-school duo UGK’s “Protect and Serve” in 1994,
What is country rap? Country rap is a mixture between country and rap music. The country lyrics match with the hip-hop beats. So when did country and rap mix together? You could say country rap goes as far back as the 1960’s. There are many differences between country and rap but there is also so many similarities.
The corruptness of music today seems to be linked to the crude language and aggression found particularly in hip-hop and rap music. Some rap artists use vulgar language in their lyrics that are easily adoptable by teens (Holden). Not only have certain lyrics influenced the way teens speak but also their actions. An article on Headliners.org stated that “lyrics in the music are too violent and are to blame for many problems.” The problems range anywhere from suicide and aggression towards women to underage drinking and drug use. Lyrics are not only to blame, but also what people see in artists’ music videos can affect what they do (Doaks). The urge to emulate these rap musicians has escalated quickly causing a spike in rebellious tendencies among teens.
These negative connotations isn’t just representative of a small sample of rap. The concept of gangster rap is so prevalent that it has created a culture that openly embraces the violent messages that it portrays in its lyrics. Furthermore, these statistics show the problem of acceptance whereas such a large amount of the population have already accepted the messages in these lyrics to be socially acceptable. As opposed to being appalled, these songs are being promoted as economic successes. In response, artists are following this trend to make their lyrics more controversial and with more negative ideas in order to fully grasp the market. Especially in the current society, the recent conflicts between minority groups and authorities have caused a return to gangsta rap as people look to identify with their current feelings. Given the fact that Billboard 100 have recently released an article stating how “listeners have become increasingly obsessed with gangsta rap”, it signifies a drastic change within our society as gangsta rap has once again become a rallying cry towards violence against the authorities. In this case, the negative effects of gangsta rap is shown where it represents the fact that it will and has a significant impact that turns the youth towards violent
Music and society have always been closely related. For years now music has been apart of people’s everyday lives all around the world. Having so many different genres out there, it makes it easy to be appealing to so many different ethnic backgrounds. However, one type of genre in particular has seemed to grab the attention of a younger generation. Rap music has undoubtedly had its utmost impact on African American youth, since many of the performers themselves are African American. An overtly masculine culture dominates rap music and creates gender stereotypes that become abundantly popular to the youthful audience. Three constant themes that are found within the rap culture are encouragement of violence, the misogynistic representation of women, an extreme hatred of homophobia. Each theme plays a detrimental role in the process of defining black masculinity as well as shaping the values, morals, and beliefs that its younger audience adopts after tuning into this “gangster lifestyle”.
Rap music has become one of the most distinctive and controversial music genres of the past few decades. A major part of hip hop culture, rap, discusses the experiences and standards of living of people in different situations ranging from racial stereotyping to struggle for survival in poor, violent conditions. Rap music is a vocal protest for the people oppressed by these things. Most people know that rap is not only music to dance and party to, but a significant form of expression. It is a source of information that describes the rage of people facing growing oppression, declining opportunities for advancement, changing moods on the streets, and everyday survival. Its distinct sound, images, and attitude are notorious to people of all
From it's inception, rap indured a lot of hostility from listeners--many, but not all, White--who found the music too harsh, monotonous, and lacking in traditional melodic values. However, millions of others--often, though not always, young African-Americans from underprivileged inner city backgrounds--found and immediate connection with the style. Here was poetry of the
Rap music features lyrics filled with slang and often peppered with profanity, which has caused concern among parents, educators and activists alike. Rap videos can also illustrate glamorous and dangerous fantasies. But rap music is a diverse genre, used to express a wide variety of realities and aspirations. Even if your teenager imitates the fashions and language used by rap artists, this may not always indicate a significant change in your teen's values or goals. Rap lyrics are emotionally intense and often spin a rags-to-riches tale.” According to Michael Delpleache of Hip Hop Gives Back, a youth empowerment organization, teens are drawn to the fantasies of wealth, glamour, and sex appeal in rap videos”. For teens in poor communities,
The purpose of this study is to show that there is more to rap and hip hop lyrics than what most people take them for. It cannot be disputed that violence is a major theme in this genre of music, but the lyrics of artists who have been able to stay in the game for a long time show that overtime the subject of their song matter varies with their experiences and success. Two artists who are very well respected in the rap industry and who have been around for awhile, Nas and Jay-Z both show a wide variety of topics in their music and that with success their music went from violent tales to songs that are more fun, more positive and more concerned with material things. Using a
24 Nov. 2015. Scott, Jeanita W. Richardson & Kim A. "Rap Music and Its Violent Progeny: America's Culture of Violence..." Journal of Negro Education. Summer 2002: 175-192. SIRS Issues Researcher.
It’s important to know that “rap music has major social and cultural significance for American and global youth audiences and, along with other media, is believed to play a central role in shaping adolescents’ beliefs, attitudes, and intentions”. (Herd 577) When you look behind the words being used, you can see what the message and context behind the words is. Most people only take rap music for its face value
, and how it's affecting our youth and why it shouldn’t be spread even more. And where some adults find it annoying and irrelevant, I’ll be explaining why it has its own subculture and language, and that teens take it so seriously, that it's affecting them and everyone around them. For this I will be delivering this idea through an email to a manager of a music production that empowers rap and popularizes it. I chose that because he will be one of the big reasons this kind of language and subculture is spread, and I’ll be explaining why he should stop. For research I’ll be looking
Teenagers in the 21st century listen to a variety of music every day. Music is an art form that teens tend to understand, no matter the genre. With genres comes subgenres of music. Teens may like a genre of music, but not all subgenres that come with it. Some of the most popular genres of music among teenagers are rap, rock, and pop.
In the world today rap and hip hop is beneficial to society (Robinson, 2008). Throughout the past few years’ artist use their music to express their views on life, opinions, and feelings. Some artist has lyrics that a lot of people can relate to, some may or may not know what they are talking about because either they have done the same things or is having the same issue (Akil, 2010). The world has freedom of speech according to the first amendment, and that is all the artist are doing.
My favorite music is rap. There’s something about rap that makes me feel a certain mood I can hardly explain. There are many rappers out there that some people may like that I don’t. I also make raps in my free time if i’m in a silent room and listening to rap music to get me in that mood. I like classic rap like 2pac and Biggie, and some modern rap like Danny Brown and Stitches. A lot of people bully me over the music I listen to and I try my best to ignore them but they somehow get in my head. I also like some rock like Hed.Pe and Three Doors Down. I’m like my dad in a way.
A constant debate amongst society is whether or not certain genres of music have an impact on the behavior of listeners, whether that impact is positive or negative. Would a person steal because of a song they heard? Would a person murder another human due to the lyrics of their favorite song? Questions like these are often asked and very rarely answered. The main genre of debate: hip hop music. Though the debate continues to go on in today’s society, the answer has never been given. In fact, some research shows that hip -hop music can have a generally positive effect on listeners. Music has always been in the middle of debates, and more specifically, rap music has always been questioned since it became popular back in the 1980’s. When they first entered the scene, all music has gone through a stage of being questioned about it’s content, respectfully. For example, jazz music was said to promote drug use and was called a bad influence on the youth, and Rock and Roll superstars like Elvis were said to be harmful to listeners. Those respected genres have been popular for years now, but hip-hop music is constantly thrown under the rug. The purpose of this paper is to show that, while it is often debated, rap music has a generally positive effect on its listeners.